Therapeutic agents for topical administration to the eye are generally formulated in either a liquid or gel form and must be kept sterile until administration. Accordingly, ophthalmic therapeutic agents are either packaged asceptically, which is cumbersome and expensive or are heat sterilized. Unfortunately, many therapeutic agents are not oxidatively stable, especially at elevated temperatures.
EDTA, Dequest, and Desferal have been used to improve the stability of certain therapeutic agents during autoclaving. However, there remains a need for other compounds capable of stabilizing unstable therapeutic agents that are susceptible to oxidative degradation. This need is met by the following invention.